For all those situations where you would
like to record a conversation but you
didn't bring anything that can record. Or
you don't want to make it too obvious
that
you are recording.

After recording you can immediately
listen to it and let others listen to it.

When you hang up
after recording you
receive a text message with the unique
number of your recording so you can call
back and play it.

Or you can send the number of your
recording at that
service to other so they can listen. Maybe
it should be 0800
RECORDIT and 0900 LISTENBACK.

On the website you can
download it as MP3 for a small fee.

Just before the conversation you want to
record you say 'wait,
let me turn of my phone' and you put it
on
the table, while in fact you are dialing
this
service.

As an extra service you can also buy a
certificate that it was indeed your
number the call came from.

For
example, when you are in a traffic
accident, you immediately pick up your
phone
and push record. You get out of the car
and the guilty party starts shouting
insults to you, providing
evidence of his guilt. No arguing in court
afterwards
when he denies ever having said what he
said.

We had some such set-up at an inter-dealer broker I used to work for (since the verbal agreements to buy or sell counted as binding contracts, we recorded the brokers' lines, including the 1-800 dial-in lines, and we used some of the latter to give people the ability to place long distance calls from outside the office).

Legality depends on locale. Around here, as long as one party knows the conversation is being recorded, it's fine.

This is a good idea, but wouldn't this be better with an up-front PIN number for identification?

I suspect the latter, and I do not apologize, since I am only following what is now common usage.

As to the former, easier, I think, to set up a PIN number in advance, along with an email address for the MP3/link, than have to enter your credit card number and write down the reference number every time you use the service.

[+]
As far as legality, it could have the option of beeping loudly every 15 seconds, which would make it legal in California and other areas with strong privacy laws. It could use caller ID to detect your location and automatically turn on the beep in those areas where it's mandated.

The privacy laws usually dictate that both parties must agree to taping private conversations, or that the conversation must be somewhere that is not assumed to be private (such as a restaurant or sidewalk).

Folks: Privacy is a good thing. You may not think you need it for yourself, but the next Martin Luther King Jr. will need to not be shut down by the next malicious agents. I can see legitimate use to record non-private conversations.

I think here it is legal to record a conversation without a person's knowledge if you are present. It becomes a problem if you are recording at a distance, which becomes 'bugging' if you install the transmission equipment yourself or 'tapping' if you are accessing pre-installed but private transmission equipment.